QUICK FACTSName: “Folded rocks” of the Aladaghlar MountainsLocation: Northwest IranCoordinates: 37.126276036681965, 47.61930020667193Why it is fantastic: The panorama appears to be like crumpled and folded from above.Iran’s folded rocks are rugged mountain ridges and valleys to the southwest of the Caspian Sea. They’re an extension of the Better Caucasus mountain belt, which additionally stretches alongside Russia’s border with Georgia and Azerbaijan.The folded rocks sit down on the intersection of Asia and Europe, the place main tectonic forces converge. The rocks are shaped of numerous sedimentary layers, which have been upturned and creased into the panorama we see these days all through the preliminary collision between the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates. The timing of this collision is hotly debated, with estimates starting from 10 million to 50 million years in the past.”A tectonic collision between Eurasia and Arabia over tens of millions of years compressed those colourful rock layers, bending them into massive folds,” NASA officers wrote at the social platform X in January 2024.
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The Arabian and Eurasian plates are nonetheless converging, and up to date analysis signifies a piece of oceanic crust that separated the 2 plates ahead of they collided is now being torn aside below Iraq and Iran. The Neotethys oceanic plate seems to be pulling the area down from underneath, leading to an ordinary accumulation of sediment on the floor.Comparable: North The united states is ‘dripping’ down into Earth’s mantle, scientists uncover
Iran’s folded rocks captured with a satellite tv for pc in 2025. The fairway line curving down from the highest of the picture is the Qezel Ozan River. In opposition to the highest of the picture, a line reducing in the course of the folded rocks presentations the Zanjan-Tabriz highway (Highway 2). (Symbol credit score: Imagery ©2025 Airbus, CNES / Google maps)Iran’s folded rocks are colourful, with colourful terracotta, greenish and blueish bands which can be the results of other sedimentary layers deposited through the years. Those layers have been eroded over tens of millions of years after the preliminary tectonic collision, exposing the underlying rocks’ alternating colours and textures.Satellite tv for pc pictures of the folded rocks divulge the level to which the panorama used to be bunched in combination over the eons. Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory coloured one such symbol with infrared to turn the more than a few rock layers, in addition to crops and the human-built Zanjan-Tabriz highway, which cuts in the course of the folded rocks and connects the towns of Tehran and Tabriz.Get the sector’s most enticing discoveries delivered instantly for your inbox.Any other satellite tv for pc symbol from NASA’s Earth Observatory highlights the intricacy of Earth’s floor on this area and presentations the Qezel Ozan River, which hugs the southeast nook of the folded rocks and provides water for agriculture within the house.Uncover extra fantastic puts, the place we spotlight the incredible historical past and science at the back of probably the most maximum dramatic landscapes on Earth.
